Heddle comprising eyes adjacent its ends



v1960 0. WAGNER 2,949,936

HEDDLE COMPRISING EYES ADJACENT ITS ENDS Filed Sept. 25, 1956 2 Z L. J

|l IlllW 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Aug. 23, 1960 o. WAGNER 2,949,936

HEDDLE COMPRISING EYES ADJACENT ITS ENDS Filed Sept. 25, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 n t d States Pat HEDDLE COMPRISING EYES ADJACENT ITS ENDS Otto Wagner, Horgen, Zurich, Switzerland, assignor to Grob & Co. Aktiengesellschaft, Horgen, Zurich, Switzerland Filed Sept. 25, 1956, Ser. No. 612,035

7 Claims. (Cl. 139-96) The present invention relates to heddles and has the main object of providing a heddle which can be reliably and readily spaced apart from adjacent heddles when the warp threads are drawn through the said heddles.

The progressive automation of the weaving machinery brought it about that also the machinery for the preparation of the weaving proper had to be further developed and partly automatised. Where in the past the weaving harnesses were always drawn-in manually by means of drawing hooks, at present a stage has been reached, in which the warp threads are drawn-in mechanically into the heddles. This drawing-in is effected for example by means of a so-called drawing-in machine wherein the heddles filed on auxiliary rails are individually fitted with warp threads.

While the working with heddles made of round wire is comparatively simple in that such heddles owing to their characteristic shape do not contact one another closely, the use of heddles made of flat material, e.g. of flat steel, always offered difliculties. These heddles made of round wire subsequently rolled fiat contact one another closely owing to their flat shape so that separation or cutting out of individual heddles by the separating needle of the drawing-in machine always causes trouble. By small deflections, cranking or embossing in every possible form it has been tried to give these heddles a certain spacing in order that the aforesaid separating needle may penetrate better between the individual heddles, and does not abut on the rolled edges thereof. It was then necessary to offset the positions of the embossings concerned, for example arranging them alternately adjacent the upper and the lower end eyelet. Depending on the kind of offset then two or more types of heddles are formed which have to be filed in the correct succession in order to secure always the aforesaid spacing. There exists now in practice the danger that the different types of heddles are mixed up, either by the insertion of new heddles or by the cutting out of defective ones. At such points then two heddles of the same type contact one another whereby the spacing between them is abolished. A further disadvantage of the embossed heddles consists in that they require much more space, which has an adverse effect on the density of filing the same.

It would be furthermore conceivable to provide the heddles with small punchings arranged in echelon in order to attain a good separation; however, this arrangement requires an alternating operation of the separating needle.

According to the present invention and with the object stated herein above and other objects in view I provide a heddle comprising eyes adjacent its ends, a flat straight portion intermediate the said eyes and an eyelet for the warp thread in the middle part of the said straight portion, at least one edge of the said flat straight portion being at least partly chamfered.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood and readily carried into effect some embodiments of 2,949,936 Patented Aug. 23, 1960 heddles hitherto known and in contrast thereto some embodiments according to the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows the upper portion of a group of heddles filed on a rail;

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2-@ of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 shows correctly filed heddles provided with crankings;

Fig. 4 is a section on the line 44 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 shows wrongly filed heddles of the type of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a section on the line 6-6 of Fig. 5;

Fig. 7 shows heddles provided with chamfered edges;

Fig. 8 is a side elevation of a heddle according to Fig. 7;

Fig. 9 shows part of Fig. 8 on a larger scale;

Fig. 10 shows part of Fig. 7 on a larger scale;

Fig. 11 is a section on line I l-1'1 of Fig. l0;

Figs. 12 and 13 show further embodiments in section;

Fig. 14 shows a further embodiment in elevation.

In the drawings of the drawing-in machine only the auxiliary rail and the separating needles are shown.

in Fig. l a group of the usual heddles 1 made of flat steel are shown, which are filed on an auxiliary rail 2 of the drawing-in machine. As shown in Fig. 2, the separating needle 3 can not always separate the heddles reliably, and sometimes abuts on the rolled edges 4.

In Figs. 3 and 4 a known embodiment is illustrated in which fiat heddles 5 alternate with heddles 7 provided with crankings 6. However, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, this embodiment does not always ensure that the interstices 8 desired are kept between the heddles.

In Figs. 7 to 13 several embodiments of a heddle according to the invention are shown. The heddles have end eyes 10, flat straight portion 9 between said end eyes 19 and an eyelet 12 for the warp thread in the middle part of said straight portion 9. The edges of the straight portion 9 are chamfered immediately adjacent the end eyes 10. The chamfered portion of the edges corresponds in its length approximately to the width of the separating needle, i.e. at least to the width of the heddle (Fig. 9). Each of the edges is chamfered at two different places. The cross section of the heddle at the chamfered portion may be for example hexagonal (Fig. 11) or parallelogramshaped (Fig. 12). Fig. 13 shows an embodiment in which this cross section is founded by two convex arcs. Naturally other cross section shapes could be used by appropriate modification.

Fig. 14 shows a heddle having one edge chamfered all over the length of the straight portion. Each heddle can accordingly be separated faultlessly and reliably by the needles 3. When removing defective heddles or adding new heddles there is no danger that the interstices 8 may be abolished.

In the embodiments illustrated in Figs. 7 to 13 both edges have chamfered portions, but it suflices for attaining the effect desired to have one edge chamfered as shown in Fig. 14.

The whole heddle could be made of an appropriately profiled wire. This embodiment would, however, have the disadvantage that by the sharp edges of the heddles the warp threads in the range of the level of the shed may be damaged.

Instead of making the heddles of fiat steel the heddles could be made of synthetic material.

While I have described herein and illustrated in the accompanying drawings what may be considered typical and particularly useful embodiments of my said invention I Wish it to be understood that I do not limit myself to the particular details and dimensions described and illustrated, for obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled in the art.

. v 3 What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A heddle comprising a flat strip of material of uniform thickness so as to enable a plurality of identically shaped heddles to be mounted in unbroken flatside engagement with each other, an eye adjacent to each end of said strip, an eyelet for a warp thread intermediate said eyes, and a chamfer extending at least along a portion of one edge of said strip between said eyes and eyelet so as to provide a break in said unbroken engagement for insertion of a separating tool, said charnfer being such as to provide a substantially sharp edge on the strip andto leave between two adjacent strips a recess which is substantially V-shaped in a cross-section of the strips.

2. The heddle as set forth in claim 1, in which said chamfer has a length at least equal to the width of the portions of said strip between said eyes and eyelet.

3. The heddle as set forth in claim 1, in which said chamfer extends at least along a portion of each edge of said strip between said eyes and eyelet.

4. The heddle as set forth in claim 1, in which said chamfer is disposed adjacent to one of said eyes.

5. The heddle as set forth in claim 1, in which the cross section of said chamfered portion of the strip is 5 hexagonal.

6. The heddle as set forth in claim 1, in which the cross sectio'n of said chamfered portion of the strip is parallelogram shaped.

7. The heddle as set forth in claim 1, in which the 10 cross section of said chamfered portion of the strip is bounded by two convex arcs.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

